One in an occasional series of stories about used bookstores… Tucked away at a small table between SEX and AMERICANA, Ann Becker and I are munching on chicken sandwiches and talking shop. The shop we’re talking is Becker’s Books, a used bookstore that opened in 1993 and went online two years later. SEX and AMERICANA […]
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Some years ago, photographer Annie Leibovitz and her partner, writer Susan Sontag, began planning a project called the Beauty Book. It was to be an escape from the pressures of publishers and deadlines, an excuse to visit and think about places they loved. But Sontag died of leukemia in 2004 and Leibovitz knew she could never […]
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The Confession By Charles Todd. Morrow, 352 pp., $24.99. Reviewed by P.G. Koch The Confession, a new inspector Ian Rutledge mystery by pseudonymous writing duo Charles Todd, takes the series’ literally haunted survivor of the WWI trenches out to the dank and creepy marshlands of Essex. In that insular world of tight-lipped fishermen, a gunshot […]
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I’m late to the party on this, but I had to say something. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports that Tom Cruise will be playing Jack Reacher, the hero of 16 books (and counting) by best-selling mystery writer, Lee Child. Reacher first appeared in 1997 ‘s Killing Floor, and he’s been wooing readers with his restless […]
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[Editor's note: Chronicle techblogger and columnist Dwight Silverman has been paying attention to changes in the publishing industry wrought by electronic books. Here are his thoughts on how publishers can take it to the next level. – M.G.] The past year has seen the mainstreaming of e-books. Electronic copies of books now outsell print editions […]
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Today, author and Houston Chronicle blogger Kayt Sukel releases her first book: Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex and Relationships. Over the past year, Sukel, an award-winning travel blogger, has been touting her upcoming book on Twitter and Facebook. Last year, part of the story even went viral, when Sukel scooped herself in […]
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